As presently practiced in most commercial broiler houses, after ten days, the feed is delivered automatically to feed pans positioned in a line and spaced to provide feed access for all chickens around the feed pan. However, the automated system only works when chicks are large enough to eat from the pan and have been properly trained and conditioned to feed from the pans and to trigger the automatic fill mechanisms. Initially, when baby chicks are placed, the baby chicks are too small to reach the pans for the first 10 days of growth. Grower/farmer is required to place a large number of trays alongside and surrounding the automated feed pans. It is mandatory for the grower/farmer to use the tray supplementary feeding because the broiler outcome in average daily gains and feed conversion depends on feed availability during the first 10 days of life. The best management practice demands that ample feed is immediately available when placement is made and during the brooding when chick needs to find feed rapidly. The trays are placed between and on either side of the automated feed pans and around brooding heaters when available. Presently these trays are filled manually.
The manual filling of the supplemental feed tray is very strenuous work. Since the physical energy and labor required for the filling task is enormous, a typical grower/farmer cannot accomplish the task alone. Further, the probability of injury, even to physically fit individuals, is great due to repetitive scooping and carrying buckets of feed to fill the trays, since a bucket of feed weighs about 35 pound. The strenuous nature of the work often eliminates many elderly growers from participating in this activity because they are not physically able to fill the trays manually.
A typical broiler farm with six houses has to hire additional labor to perform the work. The average expectation to fill the trays manually for six houses with buckets is six people, in addition to the grower/farmer, working about 10 hours. At this pace, the trays in one house are filled in 1.7 hour or at a time cost of 10 man hours of hired labor to accomplish the task. Presently, the industry has not had a successful feed delivery system for filling the supplemental trays for the very young chicks. In the past, an approach was tried by using an overhead feed cart on an elevated trolley that is operator controlled. In this effort, feed is delivered down the trolley in an overhead hopper which is delivered to the trays via an auger to a flexible hose directed by the operator. This approach works best in houses that do not have automatic feed lines since the rigging has to be dropped to the floor out of the way during the first two weeks if the house has an automated feed system. Further, the trolley idea was proposed prior to the use of equipment such a windrowing, automated distribution of bedding with a large truck, overhead permanent heaters, and automated drinkers and feed lines that hang from the building ceilings. In addition, many of the modern broiler houses have ceilings even lower than previous ones to facilitate greater wind speed when operating in tunnel and offer even less space to house a permanent trolley. Thus, in conclusion, physical obstructions, such as trolleys, are detrimental to accessibility and wind speed in modern houses and the apparatus was not accepted by the industry.
Another approach called the “Feed Caddy” is pulled behind a small tractor or ATV during which paper is rolled out onto which feed is automatically dropped. This approach is an improvement in that it does eliminate much of the physical effort and can be operated faster than manual delivery of feed. The chicks waste considerable feed off the paper and moisture may contribute to rapid disintegration of the paper before 10 days has elapsed; thereby, causing shortage of feed availability for some chicks that will get a slow start. With this “Feed Caddy” apparatus, the feed still cannot be delivered into supplemental trays. Trays are still required, as noted above. Thus, feed may be unavailable for some chicks with the “Feed Caddy” method.
In spite of the aforementioned methods, the broiler industry grower/farmer still must use supplementary trays. The present practice of providing ample quantity of feed for all chicks during this critical time is met by surrounding the automated feed pans and floor heaters with flat shallow trays and then filling each of these trays with feed from scoops or buckets. The manual fill of trays by pouring feed from a scoop or bucket is exhausting, since a typical broiler house of 23,000 chicks requires 250 trays or about 2600 pound of feed and more if a large modern house exists. Today, most growers/farmers transport feed in a cart pulled with an ATV or fill the back of a pickup truck with feed and then manually scoop out and transfer the feed into trays, usually with 5 gallon buckets.
The portable feed delivery system allows mounting and dismounting of the entire system from the transport vehicle after filling the trays; thereby, cost effectively freeing the vehicle for other uses. Another object is to use proven and mechanically reliable components to meet the reliability requirement of this critical poultry feed delivery application. Its ease of assembly, durability, and low cost of manufacturing supports rapid market penetration. Thus, the portable feed delivery system provides a scalable capacity with bulk quantities of feed in a mechanically simple portable continuous feed system while freeing the operator from tedious control needed to deliver feed reliably into a small tray without waste.
Using this portable feed delivery system, two individuals can easily complete the tray filling operation for 23,000 chicks within 26 minutes and allowing another 20 minutes to fill the portable feed box. The total time is 46 minutes per house. With this portable feed delivery system, the object is for the grower/farmer to be the operator controlling the delivery of the feed into the tray and only one other person is required to drive the transport vehicle. This translates into 1 man hour of hired labor to fill the trays using the Portable Continuous Feed Delivery System per house. A comparison of this invention method (1 worker for 1 hr) with the manual method (6 hired workers for 1.7 hr) illustrates a 10 fold increased efficiency of effort over the manual method of filling normally practiced in the broiler industry. Thus, the portable feed delivery system enables growers to reduce the variable labor cost associated with short out-times and narrow profit margins since the grower and one other person can perform the entire work in a shorter time and with less effort.
Another major object of this invention is the ease of use of this invention, which enables elderly growers/farmers of either gender to perform the work without risk of physical breakdown or injury due to heavy lifting or twisting while walking with and empting loaded feed buckets. Another object of the invention provides a feed delivery system that is suitable for use by women, elderly, and individuals with minor physical limitations. Thus, a broader object of the invention is to allow elderly growers to continue growing broilers even as they become more infirm, or even begin a broiler operation business during their retirement years.
The portable feed delivery system provides an appropriate continuous stream of feed at a high flow rate (100 pounds per minute), to be capable of delivery of feed into asymmetrically positioned target trays without waste, to direct the stream of feed into shallow trays, and to provide easy control of the feed stream by the operator.